Last night saw the return of the Cleveland Cavaliers to the floor to take on the Milwaukee Bucks in their opening preseason game.
Let me say that again as that's going to be a point emphasized over and over again: their FIRST preseason game.
I have to keep saying that to keep things in perspective as last night was a very, very encouraging opening display of basketball presented to use from the wine and gold.
From the moment Mike Brown was announced as the head coach in his second stint with the Cavs, people have been wondering how quickly this team would embrace his defensive priniciples, if they did at all. What was the offense going to look like? Was Anthony Bennett going to be ready to play?
Well, this corner very pleasantly surprised to see what was going on once I turned the TV on to watch the end of the second quarter into the second half, then watched the replay at midnight to see what I had missed prior to that point.
I saw players hustling on their rotations, bigs showing strong, pressure on the ball, and a swarming of defenders to the paint that I hadn't seen since, well, Brown was coaching here previously. Each player played as if defense was all that mattered to them, and when there were lapses, Brown took a timeout to explain what he saw go wrong. This happened frequently during the first half and was refreshing to see the coaching going on during the game.
As for the offense, it looked a lot better than I could've anticipated given that offense hasn't been worked on much at all. Kyrie Irving is of course gifted and does what he wants out there, but Dion Waiters continues to show an improved jumper (don't care what people say about him shooting jumpers; he looked confident shooting them), Tristan Thompson continues to expand his offensive game, and it was nice to see contributions from just about everyone who played.
Now, I'm not going to get into the specifics of each player and how they should be able ton contribute; this post is about seeing this young team openly embrace Brown's defensive ideas and execute them surprisingly well. I can honestly say I noticed more effort defensively tonight than I had seen the previous two years under Byron Scott.
Now, many will say it's the Bucks and they're going to be bad, but this effort was missing against all opponents. When the Cavs won, it was more because they were firing on all cyclinders offensively and did the bare minimum to stop the other team defensively. Last night, they played solid overall defense and weren't too shabby on offense.
It was a nice change.
Cavalier Caveats
- Brown took a beating the last time he coached here and I always thought it was unfair that he was the scapegoat when LeBron James decided to jump ship. Brown took a team back then similarly disinterested in defense and turned it into one of the top defensive teams in the league year after year. The rap is that he's not good with rookies and developing players, so this is going to be a big test for him. Will he get the most out of Irving, Waiters, and company? Or will they flounder under him.
- Anderson Varejao had to be ecstatic to see Brown back. It must also be nice to have one guy who's familiar with the defensive schemes in Varejao to lead the young players forward. That said, Irving is the biggest key to the defensive turnaround. If Irving buys into it and leads by example, this team could be back near the top again sooner than later.
- Bennett looked like a rookie last night early on. He was tentative and seemed unsure of things going on around him. But CJ Miles did something I highly respect him for. After Bennett nicked the iron on a free throw, Miles went over, spoke to Bennett for a moment, and seemed to ease the rookie's mind a bit as he nailed the next free throw and went on to have a decent night rebounding with 10 boards. He has room to grow and it will be interesting to see the growth in the coming months.
- Waiters needs to attack more. Two examples from last night demonstrated the good that happens when he does. The first actually ended in his shot being blocked at the rim, but because of the attention on him, it left Thompson with a wide open, and I mean WIDE open put back. The second resulted in a pretty vicious slam dunk. Waiters is strong and can score at will, but he needs to learn to finish better sometimes, but him attacking can almost always lead to good things, much like with Irving.
- I've always liked Thompson and am happy to see him continue to improve. Called a bust before he's had a chance to fully develop, I really hope he continues to improve his game. If he can continue to produce consistent double-doubles, this team will do all right going forward.
A look back at last night's Browns-Ravens game...
The Browns lost to the Ravens 23-16 last night. The following are some things I took away from this game as I've had time to digest what I saw and come to some reasonable, if not biased conclusions.
The Brandon Weeden debate will probably rage on, but he's continued to show improvement from week to week despite Pat Shurmer's reluctance to run the ball after halftime. Trent Richardson wasn't lighting the world on fire, but he was gaining yards against a good defense. Weeden made one very bad throw on the pick-six, but outside of that and his final airmail, his passes were catchable. His receivers didn't help him by dropping at least five passes. The drop by Greg Little that would've made it 23-20 was particularly rough. Weeden did enough to win this game though.
The offensive line wasn't as offensive tonight. Yes, Weeden was hit, but for the most part, he was able to get the passes off before the hits came. There were a couple of times where that wasn't the case, such as when Haloti Ngata shoved Alex Mack up against Weeden, completely disrupting the play and causing a sack. Overall though, it was a good enough performance. They still need to open up more holes in the run game though. Joe Thomas was hit with another holding penalty, his fourth this season. It was a weak hold, but a hold nonetheless.
Trent Richardson needs the ball more and someone needs to remind Shurmer of this. 14 rushes for 47 yards isn't a lot, but his average of 3.4 ypc was better than Ray Rice's, who was held in check by the Browns defense. Richardson did catch 4 passes for 57 yards, but it still feels like he's being underutilized. Maybe the coaches are still being cautious, but he's seen the endzone four times in four games. Get him the ball. Also, kudos to him seeming to pick up on blitz protection when he was in there.
Josh Cribbs should be lucky to be standing today. The hit he took on a punt return wasn't malicious, but it was still a hard hit that caused his helmet to fly up in the air, knock him out, and cause a fumble. The referees had to review the play to make sure his helmet was on still when he fumbled (a rule I wasn't aware of; if a helmet comes off the ballcarrier while being tackled, the play is whistled dead), but Cribbs was clearly out for a few moments. He has a few extra days to recover from the apparent concussion before the next game, which is good because the Browns need him.
Greg Little still can't reliably catch the ball, but he made a couple of tough catches to help his cause. Unfortunately, the ones he dropped are the ones we all remember, particularly his drop as he fell in the endzone that would've made it 23-20. Instead, the Browns had to kick a field goal to make it 23-16. Little has the ability to make plays, but he just can't seem to consistently do so.
Josh Gordon made a nice catch in the fourth quarter, his lone catch. It was good for 16 yards and he was hit almost immediately after cradling the ball. He held on though and the drive continued after that. He needs to pick it up and show he was worth the second round pick the Browns spent on him. His size and athleticism are apparent, but he still seems to be figuring out the speed of the NFL.
The Browns miss Joe Haden in a bad way. Three games, three big passing days from opponents despite the defensive line and linebackers doing a pretty good job. Dmitri Patterson was picked on in the second half last night while Buster Skrine was attacked last week. Skrine was also hit with a defensive holding on the Ravens final drive that prolonged things and took time away from Weeden on his final drive. It's clear the Browns need another corner to play opposite when Haden comes back regardless.
Phil Dawson just keeps hitting field goal after field goal, no matter what the distance is. He hit three last night, all from 50 yards or beyond to keep the Browns in the game. The scary part? All three could've been good from 60 or beyond. He had that much leg in each kick. The man should get one long-term contract to help finish his career and retire as a Brown.
The defense overall played a solid game, despite the secondary's issues. Craig Robertson played an inspired first half, picking off a Joe Flacco pass in the end zone. Billy Winn continued to show that he belongs in the rotation even after Phil Taylor comes back. Between Ahtyba Rubin, Taylor, Winn, and John Hughes, the Browns have the potential to have a very deep interior in the defensive line. Frostee Rucker was in the backfield a couple of times and Jabaal Sheard picked up his first sack and pressured Flacco on a few other occasions despite being double-teamed at times. D'Qwell Jackson was in on several plays as he continued his strong start to the season.
Travis Benjamin is giving the coaches a reason to keep him in, catching two passes for 26 yards and bringing a punt back 40 yards in relief of the injured Cribbs. Jordan Norwood and Benjamin Watson also played well, although Norwood dropped a couple passes, including a potential touchdown pass. The group needs someone to step up and Benjamin looks like he wants to.
A lot will be made of the wasted time in the first half, as once again Pat Shurmer played it safe when there was plenty of time to try and get a score. Down 9-7 the Browns forced a punt after taking a timeout to stop the clock. They had over 1:30 to move the ball with two timeouts still, yet the first play after the punt was a draw to Richardson for two yards. Maybe Shurmer was trying to catch the Ravens napping, but if not for a big stand on defense, this could've backfired as the Ravens got the ball back with time to spare. However, Sheard picked a great time to get his first sack and the Ravens ended up running out the clock.
Finally, the real referees made their return and the flow of the game was so much better. There was still some chippy play, but the refs were quick to jump in and separate the players involved. Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called on either side, Shurmer was hit with one after a questionable intentional grounding penalty was called on Weeden, and Paul Kruger was hit with one with two seconds left when he shoved Thomas down (who did a great acting job to boot; nevertheless Kruger still shoved him and the ref caught him), allowing one last play for the Browns. The refs were decisive and there were no issues with reviews, penalties, spotting the ball, or clock management. In short, they weren't really noticed, and that's a good thing
Going forward, when will the Browns win a game? It doesn't appear to be next week, as they venture to the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants in New York. The Giants are a pass-happy team and this will be the last game missed for Haden, which means a depleted secondary could get scorched one last time unless something crazy happens. After that is a rematch with the Cincinnati Bengals at home, which seems like a much more likely time to get a win. Haden will be back and Richardson and Weeden should have one more game under their belt.
